A Visitor to the Temple Must Do What Is Expected
The knights left.
Of course they did. The “young lady” they were escorting had reached her destination.
Now they would return to the Danier lands and report to my father that the young lady had arrived safely.
Ever loyal to my father, they descended the mountain with the guides without so much as a backward glance.
Even though they knew there was nothing here, they showed no mercy.
Those rotten bastards. I hope they catch some plague before they’ve gone ten li. Serves them right.
If I had my way, I’d share the secret I’d just learned and let them all taste hell together… but merciful me will refrain.
It’s not because I’m afraid I’d get my head chopped off by the king before completing the first revelation, with no evidence to back me up.
“Good heavens, the young lady of the Danier family has come all the way to this remote temple for her studies. How truly devout you are.”
Pithia took my hands, beaming with joy.
I looked up at the saint who was anything but devout and struggled not to smile bitterly.
Anyway, the die had been cast. I had crossed the Rubicon. From now on, it was a race against time.
Somehow, within the next three years, I had to become a key figure in Hamilcar and secure the position of countess.
To do that, first things first.
I needed to clean this filthy pigsty of a house that had nothing in it.
“I’m so glad you feel that way, High Priestess. In that case, may I make a small suggestion to commemorate my arrival today?”
“Oh, by all means. Do you perhaps have a dish you’d like to eat? I’m not much of a cook, but if it’s just grilling meat…”
Pithia glanced at my luggage and smiled brightly. Talking about meat, my ass.
“A place where the gods reside must be kept clean. Let’s start cleaning together, High Priestess.”
When she saw my face, Pithia slowly tried to back away.
But I gripped the hand she was trying to pull free and shoved my face close to hers.
“You will clean with me, won’t you?”
“B-but the weather is so cold today—”
“It’s practically spring temperatures here.”
“Still, there’s a blizzard outside. We’d have to go in and out, and I might catch something. I don’t know how to cast healing, so if I get sick I could die—”
“The High Priestess mustn’t do such work. Please clean inside. I’ll handle going in and out.”
I had received Bamilto’s blessing, so I wouldn’t get sick. I wouldn’t even get frostbite. I’d just be cold.
But I would rather endure the cold and clean than sleep in a place this filthy.
I knew I wouldn’t get sick, but Pithia, who didn’t, was shocked and tried to stop me.
Still, I began persuading her.
Serving the gods in a dust pit like this was hardly respectful, was it?
Besides, priests were supposed to keep both body and mind pure. And so on, and so forth.
I mobilized every argument I knew.
Whether she was the world’s only saint or whatever, she had lived in this temple nearly her entire life.
How could someone spend that many years here without restoring the temple even once, living in this miserable shack? What kind of person was she? I couldn’t respect her at all.
High Priestess? From now on, I was running this temple.
“Do you at least have a duster?”
Pithia shook her head vigorously. Yeah, I figured. I hadn’t expected much.
I rummaged through my luggage, but of course there was nothing useful.
Then there was no choice. I went outside, found a tree branch, and tied my sleeping kerchief around it.
“Use this to knock the dust off everything above you first. High Priestess, you must dust every surface that has a top, a side—every object that exists. Understood?”
A look of “Is this person insane?” crept into Pithia’s eyes.
Ah, I spoke so long and kindly, yet it didn’t move her at all.
No helping it. I’d have to give Pithia a little education too.
It wouldn’t take long. Surely.
There were a few things that had been hard to adapt to when I was born into this world. Taste and hygiene were the main ones.
The food was so bland—politely speaking, or tasteless if you were blunt—that I’d been shocked.
Similarly, I’d been stunned that most people didn’t wash with water.
Then I was horrified to learn they washed in the river, dumped waste into it, and did all sorts of other disgusting things. That river was literally their drinking water.
So I had thoroughly tamed Danier Castle to suit my tastes.
That had been possible because I succeeded in winning over my mother, Lady Louise.
I threw tantrums, claiming I’d get sick if I didn’t wash, and made them start bathing. The water we used for washing was dumped on the ground, not in the river.
At first my mother worried, saying, “You’ll catch something if you wash,” but after seeing that I never caught any contagious disease, she decided bathing might actually be better.
So Mother began washing too, and naturally her health improved in many ways.
Once she saw the benefits, the entire castle was cleaned in no time. It might not have been completely dust-free, but it was incomparably cleaner than any other castle in the kingdom.
Because we frequently washed things like sheets that touched the skin every day, the people of our castle suffered far fewer skin diseases than those in other regions.
In other words, I was someone who had changed an entire castle’s hygiene through persistent gaslighting. Pithia was no match for me.
Sure enough, the naively innocent Pithia—who looked almost shamelessly pure—quickly fell under my influence and began cleaning in earnest.
Or maybe she was simply tired of my nagging.
Whatever. As long as we get to Seoul, the road doesn’t matter.
On the day that marked one week since we had begun living together, the weather was exceptionally mild.
There was no wind and the sunlight was warm, perfect for a stroll.
I dragged Pithia, who had been cooped up inside for a whole week, out into the open.
Of course, unlike me, she could head straight to Gerka if even a draft got into her lungs, so I bundled her up tightly.
Holding my hand, Pithia walked carefully and smiled.
“You feel like a daughter to me.”
After just one week of living together, she was already talking about daughters. It showed how lonely she must have been.
“I feel the same.”
You feel like a daughter to me too. So what if you’re older? Your behavior is no different from a ten-year-old’s.
To outsiders, the sight of me holding Pithia’s hand would look like I was attending a noble saint.
But after this week, I had realized the truth. For Pithia, tripping, getting hurt, and breaking things was an everyday occurrence.
The best way to prevent that was for me to keep holding her hand.
‘It’s a miracle she’s still alive.’
With such a horrifying lack of survival instinct, how on earth had she managed to live alone in this remote place all this time?
When we cleaned, I saw there really was nothing. Just one rock-hard loaf of black bread. Had she been surviving on that? Seriously?
She didn’t even seem able to walk properly, so I decided we should take walks whenever the weather was good. It looked like her muscles had atrophied.
Wait, did she even have muscles?
She was so thin that even my twelve-year-old strength might be too much for her, but a healthy adult man could probably snap her arm like a twig. She clearly had health issues.
“Hey.”
Pithia murmured softly.
“When you eventually leave this place…”
Just as she was about to continue, I spotted a man in the distance.
At a glance, he was clearly a traveler. He wasn’t properly equipped. Wearing summer clothes and climbing up here on sheer willpower—impressive.
Ah, of course it was possible today because the weather was good. A few days ago, he probably would have been in serious trouble.
“E-excuse me. Are you perhaps priests from the Gerka temple?”
“That’s right. Why?”
“Ah, I am a scholar who has come here seeking wisdom. An artifact from four hundred years ago belonging to Lord Gerka was discovered, and I thought there might be related materials here…”
But there probably aren’t, his face said as he gazed at the ruins behind us.
It was already too late to head back down. Night would fall soon.
“Lord Gerka must have guided you here. Come, pay your respects.”
And of course, Pithia smiled and led him into the temple.
The tragic future that was so obvious to me seemed invisible to this visitor.
Well, you only learn after experiencing it yourself.
The visitor stared in bewilderment at the chipped bowl Pithia set before him.
He looked like he wanted to shout about what kind of robbery this was, but he remembered whose sister she was and held his tongue.
Of course he did. She was protected by Gerka in the heavens and the king on earth.
On this land, she was Hamilcar’s precious hostage—more fearsome than the king himself. Far too valuable for some random visitor to mess with.
Better to pay up and leave than get dragged into unnecessary trouble.
The visitor tossed three bronze coins with a clink.
Pithia, who was shameless yet fundamentally kind and possessed the qualities of a proper priestess, wore an expression that said “Your sincerity is enough.”
However.
“Three bronze to Lord Gerka. So you believe three bronze is a fitting tribute to the God of Wisdom and Learning. Ah, to be treated this way even in a sanctuary… This disciple’s eyes are filled with tears.”
I was not.
I had very clear standards for showing sincerity to the gods.
When I covered my face with both hands and pretended to cry, the visitor gasped.
Pithia beside me fidgeted anxiously. “Oh dear, don’t cry, Arian. Three bronze is perfectly fine…” she tried to comfort me.
The moment I heard that, I plopped down in a mermaid sit and wailed even more miserably.
I really needed real tears here. What should I think about? Sad thoughts, sad thoughts.
“Ah, Lord Gerka, this is too heartbreaking…!”
Sad thoughts… I recalled every sad documentary I’d seen in Korea. Had it been too long? It wasn’t hitting me.
Then I imagined what would happen if I had to face my mother without Pithia’s sponsorship. The mere thought terrified me enough to squeeze out a few tears.
I couldn’t cry any more than that, so I slightly lowered my hands and lifted my head so the tears would show clearly.
Flow, flow, flow!
In the end, I bit my tongue hard to produce a single teardrop.
As the tear rolled down, Pithia suddenly turned to the visitor.
You made our disciple cry.
Her clear blue eyes reproached him. Pithia was kind, but she really had no sense.
Thank goodness. She was far too easy to use.
“N-no, that’s not— I would never dare to— It’s not that, I, um, I don’t have much money, but, uh, would food be acceptable instead?”
I shot to my feet. Food? Excellent!
“Since it is an offering to the altar, a sacrifice would be more appropriate.”
The visitor hesitantly pulled out his belongings. One, two, three… He took out two loaves of bread and a block of cheese, then glanced at me. I covered my face again with an “Ahh.”
The instant I staggered, the visitor let out a scream and dumped every bit of food from his pack.
That’s right. You’re going back down anyway. Why hoard food?
Just selling one button from your coat could buy four times this much.
He looked fairly wealthy. Either he was a renowned scholar, or he was a good-for-nothing whose family was rich enough to support him. One or the other.
After stripping him of all his food, I prepared dinner.
Even though she had lived alone for so long, Pithia couldn’t cook at all.
Fortunately, I was quite good at it. I had been decent back in Korea, and I was better than most at the cooking here too.
The food was so tasteless that I’d had to do quite a bit of research.
“You’re incredibly good at cooking. Looking at you… I wouldn’t have guessed you could cook.”
Given her age and the clothes she wore, she looked like someone who shouldn’t know how to cook. The fact that she could meant there must be some dramatic story behind it.
“I have rather particular tastes. Ever since I was born.”
Someone of my status was supposed to have particular tastes.
While I held the identity of “disciple of the priestess,” he should just shut up and eat.
Whether he understood my meaning or not, the visitor buried his face in his food and focused solely on eating.
Unlike the visitor, who had no manners whatsoever, Pithia kept praising me. “Today is delicious too. Arian, how can you be so perfect?” She made me feel thoroughly pleased.
“It’s nothing, High Priestess. I will strive to satisfy you tomorrow as well.”
Tomorrow morning, I should try using that cheese. It looked to be in pretty good condition.
I really needed to create a systematic guide for squeezing visitors dry.